With The Gut Blueprint being sent to the printers I thought it was time to do a gut blog. It's long overdue but something I have been avoiding, as everyone has a gut blog and it's such a trendy topic right now, I feel you will know most of what I know! So, as with my book, I aimed for some interesting and unique information that maybe you haven't heard yet.

Although the gut is ‘in’ at the moment, it is still utterly underrated and fairly misunderstood. If we consider that there are three parts of our body that keep us alive, everyone immediately thinks of the heart and the brain and forgets that the gut is the other essential ingredient.

When conception takes place, the foetus essentially starts as these three pieces of a puzzle. The rest of the body is formed from and around this, in the miraculous beginnings of a what will become a baby.

So, if evolution prioritises the gut as one of the three most important elements of life, who are we to poo poo the importance of the gut?

Yet, this is exactly what has happened for the last five decades. In fact, naturopaths and herbalists have been laughed at for years for our emphasis of treating seemingly unrelated disorders primarily through the gut such as acne, psoriasis, thyroid disorder, infertility and so much more.

Now, as modern science catches up they have been shocked and impressed by how fundamental treatment of this part of the body can affect disease states.

Our gut is not just the place where food goes. It is the control room for our immune system and contains more bugs than most people can wrap their head around. These trillions of bacteria are so different in each human that they are more unique than our fingerprint. I could tell you about the impacts these bacteria have on all things from heart disease and diabetes, but this is everyday gut talk.

Did you know however, that these little guys actually secrete anti-inflammatory compounds, control when we poop, hold much of our intestinal tract together with their upkeep and make more decisions on a daily basis than our mind?

Here is the big news, the microbes in our gut are at least 30% less overall than they were 50 years ago. We can cure disease by putting one person’s microbes into another or, we can make a healthy person sick with diseased microbes. We can also make people fat or thin with another individual’s garden of bugs.

It is important to remember that for all we know about the gut there is so much more we are yet to discover. This is literally the iceberg that hit modern medicine in the side and has opened an enormous hole with information flooding out and waiting to be discovered.

The Gut Blueprint is my version of a gut healing protocol. It is not a liquid food, soup, paleo or vegetarian approach. It is what I have found to be a unique perspective based on the balance and traditions of food. This book is written with real food philosophy and the ethical approach of using the whole animal, from snout to tail.

If this is the start of the gut healing journey for the general public than we all need to buy tickets and jump on board before it is too late! This book can help you do that in your everyday life, no pills, powders, potions, fecal transplants or colonics needed (at this stage!).

The book will be released at the end of June, with a launch party happening in Newcastle on the 30th.